Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 GC200

DESIGN Considering that it looks like a smartphone, it is indeed on the heavy side of the scale. This is not an issue though, but it may be uncomfortable to hold with one hand. The curved grip fell a little short in my experience (or maybe my fingers were too big to fit), I feel like I needed to sling its strap just to make sure it wouldn’t slip out of my hand. Also, if not for its cracked matte texture, I would have dropped the camera a couple of times.

Located at the front of the device is its telescopic lens, while the back offers its 4.8-inch HD Super Clear Touch Display screen. Atop are buttons for the pop-up flash, power, and shutter. To zoom in on scenes, you could use the traditional zoom button, or pinch-and-flick directly on the screen. Just like most point-and-shoot cameras, its base is a door to its battery, microSD card, and HDMI ports. There is also a small hinge made solely for HDMI, to save you from opening the latch. On the right side of the camera, present are the 5mm audio jack, microUSB port, and two holes intended for the strap.

HARDWARE Since it runs on the Android Jelly Bean OS, navigating through the device was a cinch. It is preloaded with the staple Android Apps, from messaging, to file management, to games. You can pick this device up and go without any extra steps.

The heart of this device is its 21-megapixel sensor, with f2.8-5.9 aperture, and 23-483mm focal length. Connectivity-wise, it is dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi compatible, and has NFC and Bluetooth capabilities for users to seamlessly share photos, without the hassle of connecting wires or switching out microSD cards. Under the hood is a quad-core 1.6GHz processor, and 2GB of RAM that is responsible for its quick shutter response and switching between two apps at once. It comes with 8GB of internal storage, that can be expanded up to 64GB.

USER EXPERIENCE I brought this to events and photoshoots, and I must say that this performs quite efficiently. Its automatic shooting mode no doubt caught what I wanted to shoot, while its other shooting modes performed just as well. However, the photos produced were grainy when zoomed in, although the details remained intact.

During an event, I tried using all the modes available, and my personal favorites were the animated photo, and burst shot features. The burst shot took 4 consecutive shots- something I find very convenient when shooting moving people. It allows me to choose the best photo from the set, and was able to capture the moment with ease. The zooming capability is another story since describing it beyond amazing is an understatement. Distance is not a problem, because it could zoom in objects bigger than what the naked eye could see.

I also used this to document our photoshoot, for our monthly behind-the-scenes video footage. This is where the camera fell short in my opinion, because after several attempts on tweaking the camera settings, it still reverts to the default, untouched, dark “scene” of the camera. This produced “underexposed” video clips, and I had to manually color-correct them on my laptop. Still on video mode, zooming in and out of the model is quite an issue since this causes the camera to get confused which point of the frame should it focus. But once it did, then it’s all set. Another thing however is that because the mic is located at the right portion of the device, it tends to pick up zooming in/out sounds.

VALUE All its amazing features: the notable zoom function, Android OS, and connectivity options, all make up its reasonable price. If you are looking for a compact camera that is on the go, this one would definitely suit your needs.

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